Comets in position to do what Rockets couldn't

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, May 18, 2003

With the NBA's dynasty in Los Angeles having bonked after a three-year run, the two-season WNBA dynasty in Los Angeles suddenly seems more vulnerable, too. Especially with the team responsible for the grand-mama of all WNBA's dynasty -- Houston's -- again looking much like the Comets of old with the Coop, having flown same to try coaching, back after a two-year hiatus.

Cynthia Cooper has never not celebrated a WNBA title while wearing a Comets uniform. However, she's on the far side of 40 now, and her nagging preseason hamstring twitch may indicate she's just an old Comet, not the fondly remembered Madame MVP.

You have no doubt noticed how optimism is far harder to come by in Houston these days regarding our two professional basketball franchises. The Rockets, whose championship reign has faded to misty memory, are four seasons removed from their last playoff game, while the once indomitable Comets, who went four-for-four as the WNBA's first reference- standard franchise, haven't won a postseason series in 33 months.

These days, the LA ladies squat arrogantly upon Houston's former throne, and they could be less inclined to give up their Queen Bee status than their out-of-sorts male Purple Reign counterparts were to hold on to their own lordly status this spring. The Sparks have countered Cooper's return to the Comets by picking up Jennifer Gillom, the one woman in the marketplace who might successfully trump Houston's efforts to reclaim lost glory.

With Gillom and Lisa Leslie, LA owns the top two scorers in WNBA history. The nouveau rich got richer, albeit also a tad older themselves.

But Comets fans, still the league's best even if their heroines aren't, should be heartened by the simple fact that there will be a seventh WNBA season to celebrate starting Thursday night at Compaq Center against Seattle.

The one thing worse than the Comets not winning it all would be their not existing at all, and that was closer to happening than some of you wanted to believe. As much fun as we've had with the WNBA locally, the league has yet to establish itself as a viable concern, independent of the NBA's largess.

The WNBA's nascent labor movement was hardly bargaining from a position of strength when it battled for bigger salaries and more freedom of movement for its players last month. Ultimately the women were forced to sign off on a modest take-it-or-leave-it counter-offer that a number of NBA owners who are losing serious money on their ladies' auxiliary were fervently hoping would get left.

Were women's professional basketball a real business, it would probably be out of business. So it's time for every person who thinks little girls need these big girls to be role models to beat a path to the nearest ticket windows, from the Staples Center to the Indian casino in Connecticut that's the new home of the former Orlando team.

Gender equity is a two-way street. The opportunity has been presented. It has also been well-marketed and wrapped in slick packaging, with decent TV exposure to boot. But it's the walk-up fans who will determine whether the four-year deal accepted at practically the last moment launched a new era or announced the beginning of the end of women's professional basketball in the United States.

Further contraction may be required in the interim. There are 14 teams instead of the 16 of a year ago and, where the goal was once to have a WNBA branch office in every NBA port, the reality-adjusted plan is to grow the brand by any means necessary, including by shrinking it further. We know for certain that not all WNBA markets are created equal.

But then neither are NBA markets.

Another thing the women have in common with the men is the inequality of the two divisions. The WNBA's West is also best, by far. Five of the seven surviving West teams could at least be contenders in the East, whereas none of the latter would likely finish higher than third in the former. Fortunately for the WNBA, which needs all the positive pub it can get in the Big Apple, New York's Liberty remains the strongest of the weak in the East and should repeat as a finalist before winding up a bridesmaid again.

Whether the Liberty will be forced to swallow another bitter pill by the Sparks or the Comets depends on Cooper's gimpy leg and the karma of her return. Coop and Sheryl Swoopes were never soul sisters, but they co-existed well enough to achieve their ultimate objective four seasons running. There figures to be no fatal hitch in their get-along this time around, either, although coach Van Chancellor will have a day on occasion when he'll want to pull his hair out.

Or theirs.

But, again, Rudy Tomjanovich goes through the same rough patches trying to combat the defective microchips in human nature. In that regard, men and women are definitely created equal.

If the proud and mighty Lakers could lose their hunger, the proud and mighty Sparks aren't themselves immune. We only hope the Comets, whose last championship doesn't yet feel like it happened a lifetime ago, remain better armed to capitalize than the Rockets were.